How to setup email correctly in Microsoft Outlook

Our main means of business communication is through email. It is therefore important to setup email correctly in Microsoft Outlook, Firefox, etc. Setting it up incorrectly will lead to frustration and missed emails.

Microsoft Outlook and other email applications are designed to default to IMAP settings. This is not suitable for us here in sunny South Africa. Instead we at Hetjou! Web Design recommend setting up your email account using POP3 settings. Because the default setting is IMAP, you need to setup your email account manually.

These error messages are a sign that Outlook cannot connect to the email server. In 99% of cases the reason is that the account was setup using IMAP settings. Using POP3 settings will eliminate this problem.

To setup your email account is very simple and should take no longer than 3 minutes to do

Due to the number of times we’ve been asked to assist clients in setting up their email accounts correctly, we created a 3 minute video that walks you through each step of the process in a simple and clear manner.

(The full length video is 5 minutes long, starting with the difference between IMAP and POP3. However, we realise that most people don’t care and just want to setup email, so the video below starts at the second part – setting up your email account.)

We made use of Microsoft Outlook 2010 in the video, but your email application if different works the same in principal. Follow the instructions carefully and don’t jump ahead. You are guaranteed to have a much better experience using your email account.